2 easy ways for a busy person to improve musicianship TODAY

in #music7 years ago

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Most of my students are adults who lead busy lives, but are determined to become the musician they dreamed of being. A lot is said about the difficulty of learning an instrument (or other type of skill) as an adult, but one thing is clear: Life gets in the way. It’s not easy to stay diligent with practice when you’ve got work and bills and kids and stress and the whole host of distractions that adult life throws at you.

Low-hanging fruit

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The expression “low-hanging fruit” is something I say often when talking to my students. Why climb to the top of the tree when there’s a nice apple ripe for the picking within arms’ reach? There are ways that you can grow as a musician without spending much extra time. It’s so easy, in fact, that some may find it hard to believe that it’s really helping. I’ve seen the results, however. These techniques work!

1. Make playlists and channels of the music you want to learn

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You must listen to the songs, pieces, genres, you wish to learn. Sounds like common sense, right? I’ve known many musicians who want to learn to play a particular piece or style and they just don’t listen to recordings of it. In my experience the prime offenders have been classical musicians. Why? Perhaps it’s because it’s possible to play complete pieces from sheet music without having to reference a recording. The music is not on the page! Those are just instructions.
Playlists are your friend. Call it “Music Mastery” and add whatever you’re working on or want to learn in the future. You want to learn jazz? Listen to jazz every day. Long commutes to work? Hit those channels and you’ll be improving as a musician with no extra time spent.

2. Get an ear-training app and USE IT EVERYDAY

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There are a host of ear-training apps for iOS and Android, many of them free to download. Try some out. Search “ear training” or “music interval training”. Many of them make a game of training and testing your ability to hear and identify musical intervals and chords. It’s practically a game. Take 5 minutes each day for this. It’ll do more for you in the time it usually takes to check Facebook. You can also find ear-training exercises on the web at http://www.musictheory.net/exercises.

What’s on your Music Mastery playlist? What ear-training app or system will you try? Please let us know with a reply. Best of luck!

*public domain photos from http://pixabay.com. Banner by @justcallmemyth
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I teach a lot of adults as well, and I find that a lot of it comes down to the fact that most adults are used to being good at something. They've lived a while, perhaps are professionals and maybe in positions of authority in their field.

Then, they come to piano and they are starting all over again. You and I know that's not really the case, but it can have an impact on a person's ego. That, and unrealistic expectations of what it takes to learn to play a piece or a genre.

I like your approach to making sure that they are at least listening to the music and learning how to connect what they hear with either notes on the page or keys on the piano.

Great point. Lots of ego management going on!

I think that and the time factor/other priorities are the biggest reasons for failure in adult students.

I used the same photo in my post the other day - 10 Simple rules for learning to enjoy classical music. Pixabay must love steemit!

I didn't know about ear training apps before. Thanks for the tip!

Great tips my friend!

Upvoted.

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nice post
thanks For Sharing
Resteem & Upvote me please
Thank you very much

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very good advice! ... very educational!